1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of electronic communications. More specifically the invention relates to communication across an isolation barrier transformer using a transmit driver composed of dual mode super source follower circuit.
2. Background
An isolation barrier is generally used in applications in which it is desired to keep voltage potentials in one portion of a circuit isolated from voltages in another portion, e.g., to prevent relatively excessive and/or harmful voltages from entering a relatively low voltage or voltage sensitive circuit. Such applications may include, for example, telephony, medical, industrial, and other similar applications.
For example, in a telephony application, it may be necessary to protect communication circuitry from high voltages on the telephone line by placing an isolation barrier between the communication circuitry and the telephone line. However, while it is desirable to prevent harmful voltages from crossing from one side of an isolation barrier to the other, it is also desirable to facilitate signal communication between circuits on both sides of the barrier. In telephony applications, the isolation requirement is generally imposed by some governmental requirement (e.g., FCC part 68 in the US).
The transformer is one of several types of electrical devices that may be used as an element of an isolation barrier. However, in the prior art, digital communication across a transformer generally requires either a pulse transformer for each direction of communication, or time domain multiplexing of a pulse transformer (i.e., half-duplex communication). Prior art systems are incapable of full-duplex digital communication across a single transformer.
Half-duplex communication reduces communication bandwidth as each direction of communication must wait its turn to use the one-way signal channel. However, the use of multiple transformers to achieve two-way communication is expensive in terms of cost and space. A full duplex, single-transformer solution is therefore desired.
Unfortunately, the electrical characteristics of a transformer make it difficult to simultaneously drive a transmit signal onto, and detect a receive signal from, the same port of a transformer. For example, a transmit voltage signal driven across one port of a transformer gives rise to a load current component and a magnetizing inductance current component. The load current is proportional to the transmit voltage signal divided by the load impedance across the second port of the transformer. The magnetizing current on the other hand is generated by the inductance of the transformer coil being driven, and is proportional to the integral of the transmit voltage signal that appears across the first port of the transformer. The value of the magnetizing current is thus dependent upon the history of the transmit signal.
Also, the circuits on the line side of the isolation barrier may need power to operate at times when no other source of power is available on the line side. In those instances, there may be a need to transfer power from the host side to the line side. Thus, it would be desirable and advantageous to have a system that facilitates full-duplex signaling and power transfer across the same transformer isolation barrier.